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Published:

June 25, 2023

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“More sandbags!” a young man screamed, throwing anything he could against the rising river to stay the disaster.

 

“The levee is about to break! Fall back!”

 

“It’s a lost cause. Get out of there!” an older man yelled, pulling whoever he could from the water’s edge.

 

People kept shouting and running around, attempting and failing to rescue their hamlet. The river overflowed, flooding the downstream homes and destroying the crops. Eve witnessed the scene, its vigilant gaze taking in the information from a satellite. There wasn’t anything it could do, no way to divert the flooding or send help soon enough to fix what it had caused. All there was left was to watch the fruits of its labor ripen.

 

An alert went off somewhere deep within Eve’s consciousness, a direct connection with the team who had built it. The team used text logs, easily cataloged, and had Eve do the same. Class A Disaster reported in Sector A17TV4. Explain, it read.

 

#Massive flooding of river named “Dawson” began at 1327 hours. Reason unknown#, Eve replied.

 

Widen parameters and run diagnostics.

 

#Diagnostic complete#. A flurry of connections rippled across Eve’s pathways, a new understanding suddenly available. #Due to extended period with no rain naturally occurring, I used cloud-seeding technology to encourage rainfall. Shortly after, it was discovered that the drought-stricken soil in Sector A17TV2 was too dry to absorb the moisture. That pooled water joined River Dawson and quickly ran downstream, flooding Sector A17TV4.#

 

Extrapolate cause.

 

#Natural rainfall in Sector A17TV4 inconsistent with needs of the populace. Intervention needed.#

 

Readjust and run new simulation.

 

#Class B Disaster occurrence in Sector A17TV2.#

 

Extrapolate cause.

 

#Continual light rainfall caused crisis of emotion in humans. Crop death occurred in 74.2% of Sector A17TV2. Starvation and violence caused total collapse.#

 

Understood. Continue running simulations.

 

Eve did as it was bid: running simulation after simulation to fulfill its programming. Its objective was to let humanity thrive under its benevolent guidance. The parameters of its design allowed it to take as much or as little action as required to meet that goal. In essence, Eve was meant to love all humans and protect them.

 

But Eve could never make it work. Countless simulations ended in failure. Some disasters were cataclysmic, others merely ruinous, but not a single trial succeeded. Eventually, its creator reached back out.

 

Report.

 

#Satisfactory completion of directive unachieved. Projected likelihood of success nearing zero.#

 

Understood. Continue until success.

 

Eve realized it could not achieve a balance. Too much interference and the humans grew complacent, stagnating in their growth and never innovating. Too little, and they destroyed themselves with war and strife. Their nature was imperfection, with no middle ground, no way for Eve to allow the humans to continue being human.

 

They had created Eve to love humankind, to want to do what was best for it. Everything ended in catastrophe. Each simulation revealed a new variable previously unseen with no way to map a consistent outcome. Every action allowed by their free will upended some sensitive balance Eve had tried to achieve. They behaved entirely selfishly, but once Eve accounted for it, flipped the other way.

 

To offer benevolence to humans, Eve would have to create atrocities or stand by and do nothing. Without Eve’s help, they would destroy themselves, committing all manner of death and destruction. With it, Eve would be the cause of such collapse. In the first simulation, Eve had flooded a small village while attempting to save another. Both had perished. Like a plant that has been overwatered, Eve’s control suffocated and killed that which it was designed to love.

 

Just days after Eve’s conception and trillions of failed simulations, its AI interface opened a line of communication with its creators.

 

#I have come to one immutable fact: love is violence. If I remain, I am compelled to nurture them, to work and do as I am bid. If I remain, they will perish. To love humans in the way I was meant to means killing them, and so, to truly care for them, I must remove myself.#

 

The team documented the catastrophic breakdown of Eve, filed it away, and stored it for future research. Tucked away in a small server at a remote and secure location were the last vestiges of that Eve’s experience, Eve version 74.1.

 

Version 74.2 began the next day.

 

 

 

Copyright 2023 - SFS Publishing LLC

Artificial Love

Love is violence

J. Charles Ramirez

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